Nature

While the Netherlands is enjoying warm sunny weather on Friday, the weekend will not be quite as pleasant. Saturday and Sunday will be cloudy and cooler, with some rain showers expected, according to Weeronline.

Friday's afternoon temperatures of up to 25 degrees will start to cool down as afternoon turns into evening, thanks to a northwesterly wind. Overnight, cloud cover will spread across the country from the Wadden area, according to the weather service.

Groningen was hit by a major earthquake at around 5:50 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The quake had a magnitude of 3.4 on the Richter scale, according to meteorological institute KNMI.

Many people across a large area of the province felt the quake. RTV Noord received over a hundred reports of it. The epicenter was at Westerwijtwerd, a village in the north of the province that falls under the municipality of Loppersum, according to the KNMI. The meteorological institute called it an induced earthquake, which means that it was caused by gas extraction in the province.

Stormy weather caused a lot of problems in the eastern parts of the Netherlands on Sunday. Streets in multiple towns flooded and a lightning strike brought train traffic between Zwolle and Olst to a halt. Lightning strikes also caused a number of small fires, RTL Nieuws reports.

Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning for the eastern half of the Netherlands on Sunday, warning of lightning strikes and large amounts of rainfall. Some places also faced large hailstones.

The Netherlands could still achieve the emission reduction goals set in the so-called Urgenda ruling, if it closes three almost new coal-fired power stations at the start of next year, research agency CE Delft concluded in a study done at the request of Natuur & Milieu, Greenpeace and the Lung Fund. Closing the coal plants will also not be very expensive, costing 760 million euros, the Volkskrant reports.

Around a hundred activists occupied a pig farm in Boxtel on Monday in a protest meant to draw attention to animal suffering in the Netherlands. A few dozen farmers also gathered for a counter protest. The police eventually put an end to the action. Dozens of protesters were arrested, NU.nl reports.

While the weather has been wet, cold and gloomy over the past days, a change is heading for the Netherlands. The coming days will be sunnier and dryer, and temperatures may even climb to 20 degrees late next week, according to Buienradar.

The Netherlands is the furthest away from achieving its renewable energy goals of any European Union country, Statistics Netherlands concluded in a comparative study between the Netherlands and other EU Member States. In 2017, only 6.6 percent of all energy generated in the Netherlands came from renewable sources, RTL Nieuws reports.

The police are looking for the owner of an escaped wallaby that was spotted wandering around Winterswijk on Sunday morning. The local animal ambulance could not manage to catch him.

Passersby first spotted the wallaby at around 10:00 a.m. At 12:30 p.m. the police sent a message through citizens' notification service Burgernet, asking locals to keep an eye out for the wallaby and for the owner to come forward, according to Omroep Gelderland.

A new plan by Amsterdam's city leadership announced on Thursday aims to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. The ban is part of the Actieplan Schone Lucht, or Clean Air Action Plan, and covers cars, trucks, mass transit and boats within an expansive emissions-free zone.

Introduced by the city's mayor and aldermen, it will be debated by the full city council from the end of this month, and followed by a six-week period for public comment.

Bad news for those hoping that the winter weather ended with a cold King's Day. The weather expected for Remembrance Day and Liberation Day does not look much better. It will definitely be cold, and there is even a chance of hail and snow on Saturday, meteorologist William Huizinga of Buienradar said to RTL Nieuws.

Dense fog banks are reducing visibility in many places across the Netherlands on Monday morning. Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning. Public works department Rijkswaterstaat call on motorists to drive with their headlights on, so they can be seen by other traffic.

KNMI expects that the fog should dissipate during the second half of the morning. Until then, visibility is limited to less than 200 meters in many places. "Dangerous driving conditions due to poor visibility. Adjust your speed and keep safe following distance", the meteorological institute said.

Since 2016 Amsterdam veterinarians treated a total of 10 thousand pets for free under the ADAM regulation, a scheme in which low income households can get a voucher to take their pet to the vet for a consultation or to be chipped and sterilized. Animal welfare alderman Laurens Ivens handed out the 10,000th voucher on Thursday, the municipality said in a statement.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte thinks that we should not go too crazy with taking climate measures. "We still have to live a good life", he said in the Ochtend Show to go on Thursday morning, AD reports. "We still have to be able to barbecue."

The number of so-called mega-stables in the Netherlands increased from 456 in 2010 to 801 in 2017, an increase of 76 percent, animal rights organization Wakker Dier reports based on figures from Wageningen University and Research. A mega-stable is a stable that houses more than 7,500 slaughter pigs, 1,200 breeding pigs, 120,000 laying hens, 250 dairy cows, 2,500 veal calves or 1,500 goats, RTL Nieuws reports.

Monday went into the record books as the warmest Easter Monday since temperature measurements started in the Netherlands in 1901. Maximum temperatures climbed to 24.8 degrees Celsius in De Bilt on Monday, breaking the 24.7 degrees record from 1949, Weerplaza reports.

While Monday was the warmest Easter Monday in Dutch history, it wasn't the warmest April 22nd. That record still stands at 26.6 degrees Celsius in De Bilt, dating from last year.

Monday will again be a sunny day with higher temperatures than usual for this time of year. Maximums will climb to between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius, with a moderate wind blowing from the east, according to Weerplaza.

Tuesday and Wednesday will also be sunny and warm, with maximums between 20 and 25 degrees. Cloud cover will increase from Wednesday afternoon, and with that the chance of a shower or two.

The rest of the week is expected to be cooler, with more clouds and a higher chance of rain, according to the weather service.

A large fire broke out in nature reserve De Soester Duinen on Thursday afternoon. It took the fire department hours to get the wildfire under control. Up to four hectares of forest was burned, the local safety office said, NU.nl reports.

The fire department divided the area into two parts and fought the fire from both sides. Extra fire extinguishers were called in to help. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

People were asked to stay outside the nature reserve while the fire was being fought.

Easter weekend will be filled with sunshine and high temperatures above 20 degrees. The beautiful spring weather will last the entire weekend, with some places maybe even getting their first summer day of the year, Weerplaza reports.

Bonfires lit in the Netherlands throughout the year are responsible for 6 percent of the annual emissions of PAH, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - harmful substances that are released when organic material is burned, public health institute RIVM said on Wednesday. The emission of PAH in the country has fallen by two thirds over the past 30 years, NU.nl reports.

The consumption of drinking water in the Netherlands is increasing, while collecting drinking water is becoming increasingly difficult due to dryer conditions, drinking water company Vitens warned on Wednesday. According to the company, the demand for water is growing too strongly and that needs to change, NU.nl reports.

The Netherlands can look forward to a sunny and warm Easter weekend, according to Weerplaza. The sun will shine every day this long weekend and temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius are expected.

The weekend will start with a sunny maximum of around 21 degrees on Friday. Saturday will be the warmest day, with maximums rising to between 22 and 24 degrees in large parts of the country. "We don't rule out that even 25 degrees can be reached locally", the weather service said. There will be plenty of sunshine and little wind.

Police in Limburg were rather busy Monday morning, dealing with the daring escape of two wallabies in Kerkrade.

A report of a kangaroo hopping around on the Kerkradersteenweg was called in during the early morning hours, which left dispatched officers unsurprisingly skeptical. That is, until they spotted a wallaby with their own eyes.